Clara Yu inaugurated as 12th president of Monterey Institute of International Studies, a Middlebury affiliate

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April 23, 2006

Students, faculty, staff, alumni and Monterey community join in celebration

Clara Yu was inaugurated April 22 as the 12th president of the Monterey Institute.

MONTEREY, Calif.—Clara Yu, a longtime faculty member and administrator at Middlebury College, was inaugurated as president of the Monterey Institute of International Studies on Saturday, April 22. The inauguration ceremonies, held outdoors on the lawn in front of the city's historic town hall, known as Colton Hall, were attended by MIIS and Middlebury trustees, faculty and staff, as well as Monterey students and local residents. The Monterey Institute officially became an affiliate of Middlebury College on Dec. 2, 2005, when Middlebury President Ronald D. Liebowitz and then-Monterey President Steve Baker signed an agreement to that effect. Clara Yu, a former professor of Chinese, vice president for foreign languages and director of the Center for Educational Technology at Middlebury, succeeded Baker as president of the Monterey Institute on Dec. 31.

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Here are PDF versions of the speeches given during the inauguration on April 22:

Several hundred people turned out on Saturday for Yu's inauguration, on a blustery day in Monterey under skies that remained rain free during the two-hour event, while ranging from cool and leaden to warm and sunny. As the 2 p.m. start of the ceremony approached, a procession wound down Monterey's Pacific Street, including Monterey faculty in academic regalia, Monterey Institute and Middlebury officials, honored guests, and students carrying flags representing their home countries. Students placed their flags in a long row behind the dais, where they served as a colorful, wind-whipped backdrop for the ceremony.

Welcoming remarks for Dr. Yu were read by, among others, Rick Fritz, the chair of the Middlebury College Board of Trustees; Bill Kieffer, head of the Monterey board and a longtime Middlebury board member; Monterey Mayor Dan Albert; and representatives of Monterey's students, faculty, staff and alumni.

Felix Rohatyn, a member of the Middlebury College class of 1949 and a former U.S. ambassador to France, gave the keynote address, outlining some of the challenges facing the United States and the global community, and explaining why in his view Monterey and Middlebury, with their focus on international education, are particularly well situated to help. "Schools like Middlebury and MIIS are the schools of the future," Rohatyn said.

Middlebury President Ron Liebowitz also spoke of the many ways in which Monterey, under Clara Yu's guidance, and Middlebury can make a difference in the world. And he described the properties that make Clara Yu the right person for Monterey, at the right time, including her mind, her spirit, her work ethic—and her persuasiveness: "It's awfully hard," he said, "not to do what Clara asks."

The ceremonies began with a reading from the "Book of Rites," a Confucian text from more than 2,200 years ago. Yu, who was formally presented with a silver medallion emblematic of the presidency of Monterey by board chair Bill Kieffer, said in her remarks, that the text from two millennia ago still speaks to us today: "The simple words of this ancient Chinese text never cease to astonish me with their modernity. In it we find concepts of global community, democratic elections, universal health care, social welfare systems, and sustainable sharing of resources. It might as well have been written for us today."

She pointed out that all copies of the text were burned in the year 213 B.C. on the orders of First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty. A scholar later transcribed the text from memory. "Why did the First Emperor order the burning of books?" Yu asked. "Because he believed that when people are kept ignorant, they are easier to rule.

"I fast forward to the impassioned speech that we just heard from Felix Rohatyn. Instead of talking about ignorance, Felix talks about its opposite, knowledge.

"Here I repeat his words—how these words merit repeating! 'Knowledge is our first line of defense—defense from terror, defense from hatred, defense from fanatic fundamentalism. It also is the road to prosperity and development.' "

The ceremony concluded with Monterey students reading messages for Clara Yu as her presidency begins. There was one student representing each of the languages taught at Monterey—Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Korean, Russian and Spanish—messages that were then translated for the audience by other Monterey students.

For more on the inauguration, see the story from the Sunday, April 23, edition of the Monterey, Calif., Herald.

You can also listen to a pre-inauguration radio interview with President Yu, some of which was broadcast April 20 on KAZU, a public radio affiliate in Monterey Bay.

And you can find more on the Monterey Institute of International Studies at the school's web site.